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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26351455">Books and Pigments</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tazia101/pseuds/agerefandom'>agerefandom (tazia101)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Critical Role Regression [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, Drinking (mentioned), Gen, Littles Are Known, Mama Nott, Non-Sexual Age Play, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Regressor!Caleb, Regressor!Jester, agere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:48:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,076</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26351455</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tazia101/pseuds/agerefandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this when I was on episode 47, so excuse any inaccuracies! </p><p>Originally posted on @agerefandom, my tumblr regression blog where I'm always accepting requests from sfw regression accounts. </p><p>I use non-sexual kink tags on AO3 because this website's tagging system doesn't handle age regression very well, and I hope that I can popularize the agere tag eventually, so that regression and age play can be kept separate one day on AO3, as they are on tumblr.</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fjord &amp; Jester Lavorre, Jester Lavorre &amp; Caleb Widogast, Nott | Veth Brenatto &amp; Caleb Widogast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Critical Role Regression [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2110878</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Books and Pigments</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this when I was on episode 47, so excuse any inaccuracies! </p><p>Originally posted on @agerefandom, my tumblr regression blog where I'm always accepting requests from sfw regression accounts. </p><p>I use non-sexual kink tags on AO3 because this website's tagging system doesn't handle age regression very well, and I hope that I can popularize the agere tag eventually, so that regression and age play can be kept separate one day on AO3, as they are on tumblr.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nott was the last to join the table, crawling onto a chair and grabbing a drink that was already on the table, downing most of it in one go.</p><p>“Nott!” Molly greeted her from the other side of the table, raising his own tankard to her. “Are the others not coming?”</p><p>“Jester has insisted on giving Caleb a bath,” Nott said once she was finished with her beer. “I left him in her capable hands.”</p><p>“Capable at many things,” Fjord pointed out. “I hope she’s feeling kind this evening, or Caleb may be in trouble.”</p><p>“He’ll be fine.” Nott crawled partly onto the table to drag a plate of meat towards herself, tucking some of it into her pockets. “He does have magic, after all.”</p><p>“So does Jester,” Beau said from across the table. Nott flapped a hand at her dismissively.</p><p>“Caleb is better.”</p><p>“Okay, but if the two of them were in a fight,” Beau started, leaning forwards.</p><p>“Jester would win,” Yasha finished.</p><p>Nott glared at them both, crossing her arms. “You don’t have enough faith in him,” she said reproachfully. “He’s a very powerful wizard!”</p><p>“Yeah, but have you seen Jester’s <em>biceps</em>?” Beau asked.</p><p>Nott gave up on the battle in the interest of fitting as much ham as possible into her mouth, and the conversation moved onto arm wrestling shortly after that, shifting with the usual chaos of the Mighty Nein’s evenings off.</p><p>–</p><p>
  <em>Meanwhile, upstairs:</em>
</p><p>Jester was gentler than Caleb had expected, double-checking the temperature of the water and adding another half-bucket before gesturing for Caleb to undress. She hovered around him, snatching his clothes as he removed them and folding them to lie on the bench by the door. Once he was naked, she ushered him towards the washtub.</p><p>Sure enough, the water was perfect as Caleb sank into it, not hot enough to scald but warm enough to turn his pale skin rosy as it met the surface.</p><p>“Look at your freckles!” Jester cooed, poking Caleb’s shoulders as she bustled around him, preparing the soaps. Caleb hunched forward, self-conscious despite himself. They had all been in the public baths together, and had helped each other with their armour many times. Nevertheless, he was aware of his scars and spots, and didn’t appreciate Jester’s wandering hands.</p><p>“Relax,” Jester ordered, as if sensing Caleb’s wandering thoughts. “I am a good girl, I can keep my hands on task.” This was apparently all the warning she deemed necessary before dumping a bucket of lukewarm water over Caleb’s head, plastering his hair over his face until he spat it out of his mouth and tried to push it back.</p><p>“Leave it!” Jester’s hands batted Caleb’s away, and she guided him to lean against the edge of the washtub, combing his hair back with sudsy hands. “You’ll just get it more dirty with your stinky fingers.” Caleb was about to protest her wording when she started to dig her fingers into his scalp, and he abruptly found himself melting into the touch. He had not had someone else wash his hair for a very long time, not since far into his childhood. He closed his eyes, although he wasn’t sure if he wanted to chase the memories or push them away. Parts of his childhood had been missing when he’d returned to himself, gaps in his memory that led to disorienting echoes like Jester’s fingers in his hair. Jester’s voice brought him back from the confusion, humming a quiet tune that Caleb did not recognize.</p><p>Caleb found himself drifting through the rest of the bath, with Jester’s hands shielding his eyes from the suds she rinsed out of his hair, guiding him from position to position so that she could rub sweet-smelling lotions into his hair, his cheeks, his back. She even washed the bottoms of his feet before smearing a handful of soap into his palm and gesturing for him to finish the rest of his body. Through every motion, her humming got louder, until she was singing little pieces of foreign songs to herself as she brought over the final bucket of water.</p><p>The washing water had become quite dirty, and Jester rinsed Caleb’s body with the last fresh water as he stood up from the tub. She wrapped a soft blanket around him and tugged him out of the bath with a giggle. Caleb followed where she led, feeling pleasantly distant and oddly content.</p><p>Jester sat him on a stool and started to comb out his hair, making tiny braids as she sang those little snatches of simple but unfamiliar songs.</p><p>Jester had been singing for long enough that her speaking voice almost startled Caleb when she put down the comb. “Do you want to take a nap?” She ran her hands through his hair. “Or I could give you a haircut.”</p><p>“Nap,” Caleb said quickly. It was the preferable of the two options: Jester had been gentle enough with the comb, but he didn’t want to test their luck with a sharp blade near his ears. “Nap is good.”</p><p>“Naps are the <em>best</em>,” Jester corrected, pulling Caleb off the stool and towards the door without sparing a glance at his clothes. “Come on, let’s go!”</p><p>“Clothes,” Caleb managed to protest.</p><p>“Who needs clothes?”</p><p>“Me!” Caleb managed to pull his wrist free of Jester’s grasp and scoop up his abandoned clothes with one arm. His outer layers and everything important were back in his room, but he didn’t want to leave things in the bath room to get taken.</p><p>“We’ll get fresh clothes in your room, but I want to nap in my bed,” Jester said, in a tone that invited no challenges. Caleb nodded and followed her down the hallway, watching Jester’s skirts swish as she skipped past each door, her tail bobbing behind her. She stopped outside of Caleb and Nott’s room, gesturing for Caleb to go in and get changed. Caleb wandered into the room, sat down on the bed, and decided that he didn’t want to get up. The warm water of the bath and the gentle washing had made him too sleepy, and there was no way he was budging.</p><p>“Caaaaleb,” Jester whined from the doorway. “I want to go to my room!” Caleb ignored her, leaning back on the mattress and wrapping his blanket tighter around him. It was soft and perfect and he wasn’t leaving, no matter how loudly Jester protested. “<em>Caaaaleb!!</em>” Although her voice was rather disturbing the tranquility of the room. “Nap in <em>my</em> room! Get your clothes!”</p><p>With a huff, Caleb rolled sideways off the bed and managed to collect a few items of clothing, stumbling towards Jester in the doorway and accepting the hand she had stretched out towards him. She pulled him down the hallway and into the room that the girls shared, shutting the door behind them before jumping at the double bed with an impressive leap and rolling across it in a blur of petticoats and skirts.</p><p>“Sleepover, Caleb!” Jester popped back up to sitting, and patted the bed beside her enthusiastically. Caleb wandered over and she pulled him down on the mattress with a little more force than necessary. It was very comfortable, Caleb acknowledged. Maybe even more comfortable than the bed in his room. He wiggled back and forth to get himself properly wrapped up in his blanket, and then let his head rest against the covers of the bed. Jester was arranging herself beside him, wrapping one arm over his swaddled side and pulling him back against her. She was inhumanly warm, impossibly cozy, and as she started to hum a quiet song, Caleb felt his eyes drifting closed.</p><p>–</p><p>“Oh, that was nothing, remember the time that she decided to drop a box of manure on that priest of the Allhammer?”</p><p>“Classic!”</p><p>“Y’all think Jester is a troublemaker now, you should see her when she’s feeling little,” Fjord offered to the discussion. “No one is safe.”</p><p>“Jester’s a somechild?” Molly asked, leaning forwards. “I’m surprised I didn’t realize sooner.”</p><p>“Oh yeah. She isn’t little often.” Fjord finished his drink and wiggled it in the air for a refill. “Sweetest thing but a handful for anyone. I met her when she was little, actually.”</p><p>“Are somechildren more common where you come from?” Nott asked.</p><p>“Yeah, the Menagerie Coast is a lot better about them,” Fjord said. “Nicodranas has a whole district dedicated to them, and it’s the loudest part of the city. Empire kids come there all the time for a break, I hear.”  </p><p>“Most of the Empire’s not big on them,” Beau confirmed. “Never understood why, I think they’re sweet. And it doesn’t stop Jester from being the most badass tiefling I’ve ever met—no offence, Molly.”</p><p>“Jester can have the baddest ass as long as I have the sweetest,” Mollymauk laughed. “Also, I bet I could take Jester in a fight.” Beau made a doubtful sound. “What, don’t believe me? I’ll go and get her now, settle it here.”</p><p>“Fuck yeah!” Beau sprang to her feet. “I’ll come with you and get her.”</p><p>“Two gold on Molly,” Nott muttered to Fjord.</p><p>“I’ll take that bet. He’s gonna go easy on her.”</p><p>“You clearly don’t know him well enough,” Yasha interjected. “He doesn’t go easy on anyone over the age of fifteen.”</p><p>“Either way, I think we’ll be spending our bet money repairing the bar if we don’t convince them to take it outside,” Fjord pointed out, and made to follow the two who’d already left. The others brought their drinks, but trailed obediently up the stairs to watch the outcome.</p><p>–</p><p>“They only need to drink every few days, and retrieve much of their hydration from the plant matter they consume.” Jester giggled at Caleb’s fancy words, focused on the drawing that she was working on. “They can eat up to seventy-five stones worth of vegetation in a single day, but do not kill the trees they feed on.”</p><p>“They eat stones?” Jester asked, reaching for a different colour.</p><p>“Nein!” Caleb laughed. “Die bäume! Leaves!”</p><p>“Ohhhh.” Jester added a rock anyways in the grass. “Keep reading!”</p><p>“Um… The trees of the area are best known for their wide leaves, and their layered appearance.” Caleb’s voice was different when he was reading, his accent lighter with the care he used in pronouncing each word. Jester looked critically at the tree she had already drawn and was about to start on another one when the door opened.</p><p>“Here they are!” Molly’s voice came from behind her.</p><p>Jester turned with a smile, putting down the stick of pigment that she had been using to draw. “Hi Molly! Caleb is teaching me about South Marquet! Have you ever seen a giraffe?”</p><p>“Can’t say that I have, sweetheart.” Molly leaned himself against the doorframe, all sparkly and pretty. Jester wanted to draw a star on his cheek, but she would have to wait until he was asleep, probably. “Have you?”</p><p>“I saw one in a cage once! It looked like this!” Jester showed Molly her drawing.</p><p>“Hmm, that’s pretty neat.” Molly came closer to look at it. “You’re a very good artist, Jester.”</p><p>“I know I am!” Jester had to lean around Molly’s legs to look at Caleb. He was curled up on the bed with a pile of blankets around him, a big book open on his lap. He’d stopped reading when Molly came in and now he looked like he was trying to hide himself in the blankets. “Caleb, what are you doing?”</p><p>Jester received no answer, only a muffled squeak from the pile of blankets. She pushed herself to her feet, ready to go extract her friend from his hiding place, but Fjord walked in the door and she froze, tucking her hands behind her back and puffing out her chest.</p><p>Fjord’s gaze travelled over the room before landing on her, and he sighed. “Jester, you know you’re supposed to come and find me when you’re little.”</p><p>“I’m not!” Jester protested. “I’m big!”</p><p>“Uh-huh. Because I know for a fact that big Jester wouldn’t be very happy to get pigment all over her nice blue dress, and tends to use <em>paper</em> like a big girl, and not draw on the walls of an inn that she’ll have to pay for.” Jester glanced back at her drawing, which was indeed on the wall of the room.</p><p>“That was Caleb,” she tried. “I didn’t do it.”</p><p>“Oh.” Fjord nodded understandingly. “And did he get pigments on your dress as well?”</p><p>“Yep!” Jester bobbed her head. Thank goodness, he was going for it! Maybe Caleb would get in trouble and she would get to watch.</p><p>“Alright.” Fjord got really close to her, all unfairly tall and wide and green. “Let me see your hands.” Jester hesitated, but when Fjord put his hands out, palms-up, she obediently put her hands into his. He traced the lines of colour on her palms, showing where she had held the sticks of pigment. “That’s what I thought.” He dropped Jester’s hands and she hunched her shoulders, embarrassed at being caught in the lie. It wasn’t her fault! Fjord was just really smart. That was why he was going to the Academy when they got there!</p><p>“You ready to be honest with me?” Jester nodded her head wordlessly. “That’s good. Are you little, Jester?” Jester couldn’t help pouting at the question, but she nodded anyways. “Thank you. And why are you supposed to come and get me when you’re little?”</p><p>“Cause it’s dangerous,” Jester sighed. “And I could get hurt.”</p><p>“That’s right.” Fjord put a hand on the top of her head, right between her curved horns. “We’re visiting the Empire right now, and they aren’t as friendly as in Nicodranas, so it’s important to stick close.”</p><p>“Okay.” She didn’t know why they were visiting the stupid Empire anyways when people in Nicodranas were so much more fun. Stupid Empire. Stupid Fjord.</p><p>“Where’s Caleb gone, anyways?”</p><p>Jester lifted her head to see that Molly had left the room at some point, and Caleb had effectively hidden himself in the blankets, with only the still-open book poking out from the pile.</p><p>“He’s playing hide and seek!” She shook off Fjord’s hand and bounced towards the bed. “Caaaleb, I’m coming to find you!” Caleb stayed quiet, but Jester knew where he was. She pounced on the pile and sure enough it squirmed underneath her, trying to push her off.</p><p>“Lass den Quatsch!!” she heard Caleb protesting, and she rolled off with a giggle, helping him remove the blankets. Once Caleb was revealed, he was pouting, his hair a staticky mess from the struggle.</p><p>“Found you!” Jester pulled him in for a hug and he allowed it, wrapping his arms back around her. When she finally released him, he wriggled backwards into the blanket pile again, pulling one around his shoulders. Caleb sure liked blankets a lot!</p><p>Jester glanced over her shoulder at Fjord, who was watching them curiously without saying anything.</p><p>“Do you want to play with us? You can hide next if you want!”</p><p>Caleb made a sound like a deflating balloon and flopped forwards, his blanket covering his head.</p><p>“Stop that!” Jester pulled him back up to sitting. “You’re not supposed to hide anymore, I found you.” Caleb whined, tugging against Jester’s grasp on his blanket.</p><p>“Caleb?” Nott appeared in the doorway as if summoned by the noise, and was pushing Jester away before she could even blink.</p><p>“Hey!” Jester protested, trying to get back to Caleb.</p><p>“You were hurting him!” Nott accused, standing between them. She was eye-level with Jester like this, with Jester kneeling on the bed, and she looked super mad and scary.</p><p>“I wasn’t! He was hiding!”</p><p>“Mama?” Caleb’s voice was quiet, but Nott immediately turned to him. “She’s nice.”</p><p>“Okay. I believe you.” Nott gave Jester a second look, still not looking very friendly, and then swept Caleb up in a hug, her arms and legs wrapping around his shoulders and torso. Caleb buried his nose in her shoulder, and Jester subsided onto her butt, letting them have their moment.</p><p>“Do you want me to send them away?” Nott asked, her voice quiet. Jester was still close enough to hear the question.</p><p>Caleb shook his head, and Nott detached from him, lowering her feet to the mattress and keeping one hand on Caleb’s cheek. “Okay.”</p><p>“I understand why you were asking about the Menagerie Coast now,” Fjord said from behind them. “Didn’t realize you were a caregiver.”</p><p>“Mother,” Nott corrected him, stroking clawed fingers through Caleb’s newly clean and shiny hair. “I did tell you that he was my boy.”</p><p>“Right, right.” Fjord nodded. “I’m sorry for intruding, I didn’t know he and Jester were playing together.”</p><p>“He was telling me about giraffes!” Jester said, pointing to her art again.</p><p>“He’s a very clever boy, isn’t he?” Nott sounded proud. Jester thought she was probably a really good mom. She could tell those kinds of things about people.</p><p>“He can read all kinds of books and he doesn’t even sound really funny most of the time when he’s reading!” Jester said. Caleb made a ‘hmph’ sound. “I mean, he doesn’t sound funny at all ever!” she added. “He’s really smart.”</p><p>Caleb’s hands reached for the book, pulling it onto his lap and hugging it to his chest.</p><p>“Would you read to me again?” Jester asked, scooting forwards on the bed. “I was really enjoying it.”</p><p>“Do you want some paper for your illustrations this time?” Fjord asked, already holding it out in her direction.</p><p>“Yeah!” Jester stretched her arms out and waited for Fjord to bring it over. “I can make you more pictures!”</p><p>“Mm-hm.” Caleb opened the book and spent a few seconds flicking through the pages before settling on one, looking up and waiting for everyone to settle down. Fjord closed the door and took a seat on the floor by the bed once Jester’s paper had been delivered, joining the audience for Caleb’s story. Caleb glanced nervously at him, and then up at Nott standing beside him.</p><p>“You are very good at reading,” Nott told him. “But you don’t have to.”</p><p>Caleb cleared his throat, put one finger under the line he was reading, and started again. “The trees in the region are best known for their wide leaves and layered appearance.” Jester started on her drawing, all four of them settling in for an unplanned quiet evening.</p>
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